Sir Keir’s bold pension pitch to win older voters

pensioners deserve better.they deserve certainty – and for politicians to be straight with them so they can plan their lives.that’s why I’m guaranteeing the pensions triple lock will be in the Labour manifesto and protected for the duration of the next parliament.”

Sir Keir’s commitment comes after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s promise that the Tory manifesto will also commit to keeping the lock.

The Labour chief’s move underlines his determination to steer older voters away from the Tories as he strives to cement his party’s polls lead.

The 75-plus age group is the only one in which more people support the

Conservatives than Labour, according to the latestwethink poll.

Crucially, older voters are more likely to turn out on polling day than younger people. And in a message aimed directly at the grey vote, Sir Keir adds: “We will never play fast and loose with your finances.we will never leave you in limbo.”

His commitment follows Labour moves likely to appeal to more conservative voters.these include:

Saluting Margaret Thatcher for trying to “drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism”

Ruling out a return to the EU’S single market or customs union

Saying the UK’S commitment to nuclear weapons is “unshakeable”. The triple lock resulted in the new flat-rate state pension going up from £203.85 to £221.20 a week last month, with the basic state pension also rising by 8.5 per cent, from £156.20 to £169.50.

The pensions bill hit £110.5billion in 2022-23 – nearly half of government spending on benefits – and it is forecast to reach £124billion in 2023-24. There were 12.6 million people receiving the state pension in February last year.

But Sir Keir insisted Britain can cover the cost, saying: “I reject the arguments of those who say the triple lock needs to go because we can no longer afford to protect pensioners.”

Former Tory Foreign Secretary Lord Hague argued in September that the pensioners’ deal is “ultimately unsustainable”, claiming it is “growing by more than anything that can pay for it — wages or prices, or taxes, or the size of the economy”.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that “retaining the triple lock for too long increases pension spending so significantly it leads to insurmountable pressure for a much higher pension age”. It added this would “particularly affect people with poorer health who struggle to remain in employment until they reach state pension age”.